Poll preparations begin in Belagavi

Overview

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The district administration has begun preparations for the smooth conduct of the Assembly elections.

Work has begun at two levels: officials are being trained and awareness programmes are being organised.

A team of officials including Additional Deputy Commissioner Suresh Itnal and National Informatics Centre officials have completed a bunch of training sessions about the procedures involved in polling and the technology enabling it.

Separate teams are training officials from the 33 urban local bodies in the district and the 500 gram panchayats.

In the meantime, senior officers have been meeting central government officials about security liaisoning for the visit of VVIPs like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and BJP president Amit Shah.

Deputy Commissioner and district electoral officer S. Ziyaullah has been interacting with various stake holders like officials, party workers, printing press owners, advertisement professionals and others.

The code mandates that no new development works will be approved after the elections are announced. Even those works that have been sanctioned and approved earlier should be tendered out and started before the announcement.

Secondly, all the advertisements that highlight the achievements of the government will be removed from public spaces.

Government websites carrying images of the Chief Minister, Ministers or other political leaders shall be taken down.

All this will be done in 24 hours of the announcement of elections.

A team of revenue and police officials will monitor social media posts circulating among the district’s residents. No official will be transferred or deputed in 45 days after the code comes into force.